The Best Type Of Wine, Beer And Cocktail To Drink With Pork Chops

Pork chops are a classic for a reason. They're affordable, easy to cook, and reliably delicious (as long as you don't buy boneless pork chops). Best of all, pork chops are an incredibly versatile meat. You could whip them out for pretty much any occasion, from a weeknight meal to an upscale dinner party, and each scenario calls for a different type of drink. An intimate celebration, like an anniversary, is a great time to treat yourself to a nice bottle of wine; on a casual night in, you can kick back with a cold beer; and for bigger parties, you might want to impress your guests by flashing your mixology skills. But which wine, beer, or cocktail would go best with those pork chops?

Drink pairings can come off as pretentious sometimes, but they are important to consider. Yes, pairings are subjective to a point, but there's also a science to mixing and matching flavors. The right drink choice will accentuate the food, while the wrong one can become a distraction. As we look at the best wines, beers, and cocktails to pair with pork chops, it's essential to consider not only flavor, but also mouthfeel, alcohol level, and the way you've cooked the pork itself.

Pork chops can be paired with either white or red wines, but either way, you'll want to choose something with a light-to-medium body that won't overpower the meat. There are many great options to choose from; just make sure that you don't pick a full-bodied dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines are high in tannins, which are bitter compounds found in red grape skins. Tannins are great for balancing out the fat in richer cuts of pork or beef, but they don't pair well with lean proteins like pork chops. As long as you steer clear of those tannic reds, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a good wine and pork chop pairing.

The most reliable choice of red wine to pair with pork chops would be the classic Pinot Noir. It's light-bodied, and because it's made from thin-skinned grapes, it has fewer tannins than a lot of other red wines. Most white wines go well with pork chops, but you should consider how you're preparing them. If you're serving the pork chops with a rich, buttery sauce or frying them for a pork chop Milanese recipe, an acidic white like Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio would be a great complement, helping to cut through the fat. Other acidic varieties, like sparkling wines and rosés, are reliable choices as well.

When it comes to pairing pork chops with beer, you can apply the same basic wisdom you would when pairing pork chops and wine. Since tannic wines are a bad match for this lean cut of meat, bitter hoppy beers aren't a great pairing, either. As a general rule, bitter compounds make the drink better suited to fattier meats, so you wouldn't want to pair an IPA, English bitter, or Barleywine with pork chops.

Your best bet with pork is to pick a sweet wheat beer. A lot of German styles will fit this beer, like hefeweizen or witbier. The malty bock style is another great choice. Pork pairs well with sweet ingredients in general, like brown sugar and fruit, so lean into that when you're picking drinks. In fact, you could even go outside the box and pick a fruit beer, such as kriek lambic, a Belgian-style brew made with cherries.

Pairing cocktails with pork chops presents a bit more of a challenge than beer and wine do. Cocktails are typically designed to be enjoyed on their own, served before or after a meal rather than during it, and are therefore unsubtle by nature. A mojito or michelada could be a nice accompaniment for a more heavily spiced pork chop, but if you play it subtly with the seasoning, you'll need to do the same with your drink, erring on the side of simplicity.

When preparing cocktails with pork chops, think back to a lesson from the earlier beer pairings. Pork goes well with sweet, fruity flavors, and the most iconic of these combinations is pork and apple. An appletini is probably the first thing that comes to mind here, but don't stop at that. There are a lot of different apple cocktails you can mix together for the occasion. Try experimenting with applejack or apple whiskey as a base. Alternatively, you could pick a different spirit and use apple cider as the mixer.